Wednesday, November 10, 2010

My Dark Star

Song: My Dark Star
Artist: Suede
Album: The Best of Suede

The history of what is known as "Britpop" cannot be told without mentioning Suede, (sometimes, due to a lawsuit, referred to as "The London Suede" here in the US) though the band now has become a bit of a footnote in the history, a precursor to when the genre really took off globally with Oasis and Blur.

I was a fan of Suede in High School, eating up their self-titled debut that only continued to grow on me into college as I was getting into The Smiths and a variety of British mope rock. Despite a string of successful singles from that album in the U.K. (The Drowners, Metal Mickey, Animal Nitrate, So Young) and being described as "the next big thing," that debut didn't ride the wave of American Alternative that was happening at the time.

Therefore, I didn't really follow the band as much as I got swept up in the Blur phenomenon (and trashing the much more popular Oasis to anyone who listened) so it wasn't until the well received double-disc B-Sides collection "Sci-Fi Lullabies" that I paid attention to the band again. Despite it literally being a leftovers collection, I loved the album, and have read that it is now considered one of the best B-Side collections ever released. At the time I couldn't believe songs like "My Insatiable One," "Killing of a Flash Boy," and slow, epic "My Dark Star" were never made as singles.

The bands history was troubled, with leads Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler feuding often, until Butler was kicked out. The band was further sidelined by Anderson's addiction to Meth and Heroin, and the band called it quits in 2003 after their last album, "A New Morning."

The band reformed this year for some "one-off" shows, and worked on the remastering of tracks for a double-disc compilation called "Best of Suede," which was put together by Anderson. The record is followed by previous, single-disc collection "Singles." "Best Of," aside from just having more seems to be the better overview of the band as it paints their full history, and even includes some of the more noteworthy tracks from "Lullabies."

It's hard to pick one song from such a killer collection of songs, but I really want to highlight "My Dark Star," an epic ballad that really shows the drama, beauty, and power of this amazing band. If you know nothing of the band, but dig the tracks below, GET THIS COMPILATION. It's literally brimming with some of the best songs from the 90's.